The trees were silent in the woods beyond a pond on Earth, then came the standard "zoomm" of someone being beamed to the ground via Asgard transport beams, a single man in a black trenchcoat stood on the ground near the pond, looking around the man noted where he was, OK, Z's place is... this way the man thought after spining in a full circle he started through the trees to another pond, passing many campers and cabins of a large campground, there was many people milling about having a good time, and thankfully nobody saw Xaan(said as Jon) Johnson beam down from the Apllo. going down a path by the second pond he found himself next to a fence, climbing over was easy, Why did the Apllo beam me down on the other side of Xello's property? Xaan thought going past a large tractor barn that was open, he didn't see anyone inside as he passed, though he did see a cat sitting ontop of a riding mower.
Running to a gate that was open Xaan looked around, his old house next door to Mellos' place was still standing, though it now had a bunker in the backyard, I'm glad they got rid of the pork, things were bad enough without the things digging up the grass. Xaan though going up to the dark grey house and entering the front porch, he knocked on the door, "Zack, it's me Xaan, you home?"
"Ya come in!" Zack called as the door unlocked allowing Xaan to enter, he found Zack in the kitchen, "Where've you been Xaan, I missed you the last, three years now."
"I've been busy with classified things, only now I need your help" Xaan said taking a seat at the table.
Zack looked outside, "Where's your car at? did you drive or walk from somewhere?" He asked.
"Neither, mostly ran after beaming down on the otherside of a fairly crowded campground." Xaan said.
"Beamed down?" Zack asked, "your not going Star Trek on me are you Xaan?" Zack asked, "you know how I hate that show."
"Haha no Asgard beaming systems, only they got a lock on what used to be my old property behind the campground next door." Xaan said getting up and going o the fridge, "Seems I hit a snag on my current mission and had a bit of some small talk with the President and he said I can tell you about the mission."
"OK then, what gives?" Zack said.
"Six weeks ago, a member of my team entered a VR system, after getting a good look at the actual video feedback, she is inside CSS fighting many computer characters, none of us can get her out no matter what we do." Xaan said.
"OK, first off, do I have to do this help from my own computer or do I do it from the VRM itself?" Zack asked, already very interested in helping his longtime friend and his team(and possibly the planet)
"First off, you do this job on the thing itself, second, get a bag and bring only the needed things, toothbrush, toothpaste, shaver, the norm as if you are only staying one night, we got clothing you can use." Xaan said, "third, we leave in ten minutes, get going."
Zack nodded and got a small bag and put what he needed inside it, he returned to the kitchen to see Xaan holding a good sized three pound loaf of Pumpernikel bread in his hands, "I'm set to go, and I see you found food you like, they not feeding you on these missions?"
"Air Force food is terrible, Apllo, this Xaan, we set to go, beam us up." Xaan said into his radio, two seconds later Xaan and Zack disappeared, and reappeared on the bridge of the Apllo, "OK lets get back to Atlantis, Rodney's help is on the way" Xaan said. he looked to his friend, "this way." he said leading the way to his cabin, where two people were waiting, one of the two was Lt Col John Sheppard, the other was Carson Beckett.
"About time you showed up" John said, "what took you so long in getting here?"
"Well for one thing I had to do a lot of running, second thing I had to do was run through a crowded campground on the edge of my old property, third I had to dig up some chow that I liked that Zack thankfully had on the table." Xaan said. Then he added, "Oh how stupid of me, Zack this is Col Sheparrd, and Dr Beckett, Col., Dr., this is Zack."
"Nice to meet you." Zack said, John shook his hand as well did Carson. "Xaan said something about a team member getting stuck inside of a game?"
"Yup, Rodney found a VR thingy on another planet, Teyla and Ronon went with him to see what it was, Teyla sat in the thing and it sealed her in, now she is stuck inside the thing going through what looks like every level of all the Halo games and al the GTA games combined, and when we left she was still on the second level." John said.
"Has Dr. McKay tried getting her out?" Zack asked.
"Can't, if he does that then she'd be badly brain damaged." Xaan said, "Hopefully with your help, we can get her out."
"I'll do what can, I need to see the VRM first." Zack said.
"Don't worry, the Apllo is heading to the planet now, right now though I think we are between galaxies." Xaan said.
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Teyla opened her eyes for the tenth time after getting shot at, why am I not dead? she wondered seeing her weapons on the ground next to her. She picked them up, the same number of shots as the last time, only she was further along this map then she was before. OK, lets try... this way. Teyla started down a path that led between many buildings, which seemed like Atlantis but was actually the old city on Athos, after getting a good look around of where she was she headed for the place she was last at, near the ZPM room, that was her target, she needed to get in there and kill whatever was inside it, then she'd move on.
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Rodney stared at the screen of his computer, typing in his code for the trillionth time before he stretched out his arms and tried to walk,
"Well, that's a major leg cramp." he said.
"Can you get Teyla out?" Ronon asked.
Rodney let out a sigh, "Not yet, though she is nearing the end of this level, after this one is done she has one more level to finish off, then she has to face the final battle, once she is through with that, she can get out on her own." he said.
"Why can't you get her out now? She's been in there six weeks." Ronon said.
"Yes, I know that, and no matter what I think up to get her out would result in major brain damage, and I don't wanna do that to Teyla." Rodney said as he looked to the pod like thing in the ground, thinking of those VRMs that SG-1 had to go through a few years ago. Rodney didn't want her to get in the thing in the first place, though she leaned on it and the thing just sucked her in.
"Then what do we do now?" Ronon asked sitting on a rock next to the VRM that held teyla like a prisoner, the clear-class like panel sealed her in while wires and whatnot seemed to insert themselves into her spine and arms, along with the sides of her head near the brain. from the outside she looked as if she was limp as a rag, which she actually was, plus she was floating suspended by the wires holding onto her.
"Right now, we wait until Col Sheppard and Xaan get back here, which they should be soon, until then, I'm going to go back the computer and continue monitoring Teyla's lifesign." Rodney headed back to his computer.
"How's she holding up?" Ronon asked. "Lifesign wise I mean"
Rodney gave a stressed sounding sigh, "She's still there, just barely though, her lifesign is very weak, most likely due to no food for six weeks" Rodney grabbed a mug and a thermo of coffee and drank down the mug within three gulps, he tossed the empty thermo to the side and got back to work.
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Teyla peeked around the corner of the now bombed out old City her people used to live in well before she was born, she didn't hear any gunfire, but never-the-less she was ready this time, taking off her jacket she tossed it out into the street where gunfire opened up on it, using the flase alarm she tore up the front of a building and dove in the window as gunfire followed her only a few feet behind, this was getting crazy, it was strange, not feeling tired after dying in the city and seeming to restart someplace else. the she was getting kinda sick of it, "Ok what way, what way out of this area and to where I have to be?" Teyla looked first to the left then to the right, then headed, after much thinking, to the right and stay inside the buildings rather then go outside.
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On the Apllo Zack was pacing inside Xaan's cabin, "Let me get this straight the first time, you joined the USAF and you ended up in a different galaxy?" Zack asked, "I wondered why I never got any letters of how you were doing."
"Z listen, we got time so I'll explain everything" Xaan said, he brought Zack up to speed since he left to join the USAF and go to Atlantis three years before, "So you see Z, that we were on a normal recon mission to M3E T77, when McKay found a VRM, looking much like the stasis pods on the Aurora."
"I remember those" John said.
"So do I, and I hated that mission as I was stuck in the Atlantis Infirmary with a busted arm," Xaan said, "anyhow, on the mission. Teyla was actually the one that found the thing, thinking it was a window of some kind she leaned against it, and well, fell into the thing as it seemed to pull her into it, then hook her up with so many wires a Movie Set would need only half of those just for power supply alone."
"That's a lot of cables" Zack said.
"That's not the half of it , Teyla can't move or do anything at all, she's hooked up to the thing just hanging there suspended in the air held up by the cables," Xaan said, "Rodney and Ronon are at the VRM keeping an eye on Teyla now, we should be beaming down in about... ten minutes"
The Apllo came out of hyperspace near M3E T77, "SGA-1, we are almost in beaming range, be warned, we have detected a Hive Ship heading towards this system."
"That's fine beam us away when we are in range." John said.
Ten minutes later the team beamed down about three hundread yards from Ronon and Rodney. "It's about time you showed up, what took you so long?" Rodney asked, clearly annoyed
"Tell you later, oh and this is Zack Xello, a very good friend of mine and one I'm sure would help Teyla out of this mess, while John, Ronon and myself will worry about the Hive Ship on its way here" Xaan said.
"There's a Hive Ship on the way?" Rodney asked, "how far out?"
"From what we know on the Apllo, about half a day to eighteen hours" John said.
"Meaning we have less time then we hoped to get Teyla back to Atlantis once she's out of this thing." Xaan said pointing to the VRm and seeing Teyla looking paler then ever from lack of food.
"OK, looks like I have my work cut out for me now, where's your system?" Zack asked Rodney.
"Over here" Rodney said leading Zack over to the laptop computer, "I have only Teyla's lifesign on the screen, though this..." Rodney pressed a few keys and the screen showed what Teyla was seeing appeared, "...came up after the thing sealed Teyla inside it."
"I know that map," Zack typed in a few keys on the computer, and what looked like the main menu appeared, though in Ancient, which was then translated, Zack signed in with his CSS character name, and the main menu vanished and was replaced with the same view that Tey was seeing, "Now we are in business". Zack said, taking full control of the VRM, and from what it looked like he was controlling Teyla as well, then the team relized that Zack had added himself into the game, "Lets see the map from a better point of view shall we?" he asked aloud talking to himself as he moved his character around the map.
A screen appeared in front of Teyla as she walked down a hallway, it said, "New enterant recived, do you wish to make an ally? Yes/no?" Teyla though confused chose "yes" and the scenery changed to show a small room and Zack's character standing there, after a few seconds the two were made allies by way of the game system the Ancients had built.
Now it was up to Teyla to get out.
The Wraith had arrived